Drinking unsafe water and sanitation are the most common risk factor to any cholera outbreak, in a conflict situation and context of Yemen, water and sanitation play a role, however people in Yemen have not the same source of water and living conditions are total different from area to another. The question is what are the potential risk factors of cholera outbreak in Yemen?
Even if a single infected person contaminates the drinking water source , it is possible for cholera to spread . This might be due to migration of people from an infected area to different parts of the country .
Yes I agree, population movement is play a crucial role in spreading cholera in Yemen and I have mention date in my Paper. in my opinion there are many other specific factors for each region in Yemen. On of them using Khat or Qat (chewing Qat leaves) has a very important role in increasking cholera cases.
What is the mechanism of cholera spread due to chewing Qat leaves ?
chewing Qat is common in Yemen, almost 90% of adults deal with it daily. Our case control study result found that people who are not washing Qat before use it were the most affacted. if there are many studies in other regions we may found more interesting findings.
It is interesting to note that consuming infected Qat leaves may be a source of cholera & I request you to publish these data .
Dear Dr. Fekri, would you kindly share links to your work when published please! It would be very useful to see it. I truly appreciate your efforts to generate evidence and lessons from the protracted situation in Yemen. The lingering outbreaks of vaccine preventable and other communicable diseases calls for immediate attention and finding alternative ways to current interventions.
Regards,
Iman
Thanks Dr. Iman, I my paper is under review and waiting feedback on the statistic. I will share it with you soon.